Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)

The 2015 general election in Britain saw a major attempt by a relatively new party - the UK Independence Party (UKIP) - to secure elected representation. While UKIP received nearly four million votes, the party left the 2015 general election with just one Member of Parliament. Our evidence, drawn fr...

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Main Authors: Cutts, David, Goodwin, Matthew, Milazzo, Caitlin
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42016/
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author Cutts, David
Goodwin, Matthew
Milazzo, Caitlin
author_facet Cutts, David
Goodwin, Matthew
Milazzo, Caitlin
author_sort Cutts, David
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description The 2015 general election in Britain saw a major attempt by a relatively new party - the UK Independence Party (UKIP) - to secure elected representation. While UKIP received nearly four million votes, the party left the 2015 general election with just one Member of Parliament. Our evidence, drawn from analysis of British Election survey data and in-depth qualitative interviews with activists, suggests that UKIP’s campaign was a major factor in its inability to translate widespread support into elected representation. While the party pursued a targeted campaign, this had only a modest impact on its own vote. UKIP’s lack of resources, inexperience and inability to operationalize highly effective, targeted local campaigns severely hamstrung the party and prevented it from converting support into MPs at Westminster.
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spelling nottingham-420162020-05-04T18:38:18Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42016/ Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Cutts, David Goodwin, Matthew Milazzo, Caitlin The 2015 general election in Britain saw a major attempt by a relatively new party - the UK Independence Party (UKIP) - to secure elected representation. While UKIP received nearly four million votes, the party left the 2015 general election with just one Member of Parliament. Our evidence, drawn from analysis of British Election survey data and in-depth qualitative interviews with activists, suggests that UKIP’s campaign was a major factor in its inability to translate widespread support into elected representation. While the party pursued a targeted campaign, this had only a modest impact on its own vote. UKIP’s lack of resources, inexperience and inability to operationalize highly effective, targeted local campaigns severely hamstrung the party and prevented it from converting support into MPs at Westminster. Elsevier 2017-03-18 Article PeerReviewed Cutts, David, Goodwin, Matthew and Milazzo, Caitlin (2017) Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Electoral Studies . ISSN 0261-3794 voting; elections; radical right; United Kingdom; campaign http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379416300154 doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2017.03.002 doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2017.03.002
spellingShingle voting; elections; radical right; United Kingdom; campaign
Cutts, David
Goodwin, Matthew
Milazzo, Caitlin
Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)
title Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)
title_full Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)
title_fullStr Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)
title_full_unstemmed Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)
title_short Defeat of the People’s Army?: the 2015 British general election and the UK Independence Party (UKIP)
title_sort defeat of the people’s army?: the 2015 british general election and the uk independence party (ukip)
topic voting; elections; radical right; United Kingdom; campaign
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42016/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42016/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42016/